In an Antique Land, Dramas of Nationhood

In Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale and Lila Abu-Lughod's Dreams of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt, each authors provides an ethnography of a distinct kind. Ghosh's work combines a mystery story in his search for an Indian slave who lived nearly 1000 years ago; a depiction of life in twelfth century India, Egypt, and other locations; and an examination of life in contemporary rural Egypt based on Ghosh's own observations of two farming communities while earning his doctoral degree. Abu-Lughod's ethnography provides a content analysis of popular Egyptian melodramas and the reaction to them of two different classes of women in her examination of how media shapes, but is also shaped by, national identity. This analysis will examine how Ghosh and Abu-Lughod observe difference, how they manage their jobs as ethnographers, their methods and tools, and provide a discussion of whether gender seems to affect the approach of the ethnographers. A conclusion will address the difference between the two authors with respect to the impact they believe globalization is having on the communities they observe.

The methods used by Ghosh and Abu-Lughod are quite distinct. Ghosh's methods are multi-faceted. He relies on primary sources from the Geniza of old Cairo, which houses eight centuries of documents from invoices to biblical texts, to find the Indian slave Bomma, who worked for and became a representative

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n lead to the understanding required to experience a harmonious discourse among distinct cultures. Abu-Lughod's methods are more akin to those of the professional ethnographer, including fieldwork and media content analysis. She remains more detached and aloof from her subjects than Ghosh who seems obsessed with Bomma but never explores why and who views his subjects as extended family. Abu-Lughod's methods involve a content analysis of popular Egyptian melodramas, in contrast to Ghosh's use of primary documents. Abu-Lughod argues these melodramas are extremely important to an understanding of not only national identity for Egyptians but also the issues that shape and inform national identity, such as politics, religious extremism, gender issues, and everyday existence. Her focus is mainly on the reactions of two communities of women, one of them made up of maids employed by wealthy and mainly foreign employers in Cairo and the other consisting of rural villagers. She also travels to the offices of the producers of the melodramas, who conflict over the values and issues presented in them. Similarly to Ghosh, Abu-Lughod (160) finds modernity conflicting with tradition through the vehicle of television, which attempt

Category: Literature - I